Lique Coolen, PhD

Areas of expertise

The overall goal of our research is to further elucidate the neurobiology of reward and motivation. Behaviors that are considered rewarding behaviors include natural behaviors such as sexual behavior, aggression, and food intake. Interestingly, a similar circuitry in the brain that regulates natural reward is also involved in drug addiction and other behaviors that are compulsive in nature. Therefore, by understanding how the brain regulates natural rewarding behavior, we may reach a better understanding of what is different in the brain's control of addiction. Our lab studies male sexual behavior and utilizes rodent models. Our research has four main focuses:

1) Identification of molecular and cellular mediators of sexual reward and the memory for reward2) Investigation the interactions between natural and drug reward: the mechanisms by which sexual experience influences addiction to drugs of abuse 3) The mechanisms by which drugs influence sexual behavior, with specific interest in hypersexuality4) Studies of the spinal control of sexual reflexes and the effects of chronic spinal cord injury on sexual function

In addition to the rodent studies we also study alterations in the reward pathways in an animal model for the endocrine disorder polycystic ovary syndrome. Specifically, we study changes in the mesolimbic dopamine pathway following prenatal testosterone exposure in female sheep.